Kuo: Cook Should Personally Address Siri Apple Intelligence Failure

[neotint]

Apple deserves applause for its wise decision to avoid the misuse of technology for quick profits. Given how bad Generative LLM AI is since it's inherently the wrong tool for many tasks people use it for it's actually excellent Apple has largely avoided this hype train.

Stochastic language technology is great for translation, its original purpose, but is non-trivially less applicable for many other tasks. Because of greed, most all LLM providers irresponsibly offer next to no guardrails to block customer requests that are totally wrong for the tool.

Apple can wisely take advantage of its wise avoidance of irresponsible LLM tech, and by doing so, leapfrog incumbents with superior next-generation MoE, "reasoning" (error detection), multi-agent expert systems narrowly defined and fit for purpose, and mindfully designed for human-in-the-loop value-added services. They may succumb to consumer pressure for more gimmicks and parlor tricks with little real value. I hope they double down on their wisdom and ignore the foolish masses.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Anyone born before say, 1990 would agree with the above sentiments. Anyone born after don't really care.

Why? Because younger people don’t remember when people even pretended to have integrity?

 

[Rogifan]

Not a fan of the snark here from Gruber. Gurman has been reporting on this for quite a while. Same with Apple-centric podcasters like Jason Snell and Myke Hurley. It’s Gruber that’s late to the party. And he even admits it in the piece he wrote and on Jason’s Upgrade podcast.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1900277009856815382

 

[Rogifan]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1900355431417209336

Right. It’s not one person. But Gurman says Federighi voiced concerns about this stuff not working. The question is who made the call that this stuff had to be announced and marketed even though it wasn’t ready for prime time? Tim Cook? Greg Jozwiak? What was John Giannandrea confidence level with this stuff? Did he think it was ready to ship?

 

[I7guy]

There is no software solution for trying to use ChatGPT, Gemini or any other LLM-based system to power Siri, while reaching the high standards that Apple is known for.

The biggest mistake here was relying on these systems. And no, not even Apple can develop an LLM-based system that works to these high standards. LLM’s hallucinate and it is not a bug, it’s an expected behavior.

Apple should have skipped the AI-hype altogether, but there’s a lot of pressure from customers, media and the market.

Maybe, but it’s still software, not hardware.

 

[Stuwil]

What problem? I don’t see a problem, only a delay. It may be a “problem” to some, but not me.

However they showed a concept video of something that hadn’t even been shown working & that’s the problem.
Why not mention it in the first place & then later when you have it working in some capacity then you mention it.

 

[Hopefully Smarter]

never buy a device based on a promised software update.

 

[Hopefully Smarter]

Of course YOU don’t think there is a problem
However they showed a concept video of something that hadn’t even been shown working & that’s the problem.
Why not mention it in the first place & then later when you have it working in some capacity then you mention it.

And a totally cringe ad campaign full of lazy, nosy, forgetful people.

 

[jkhobble]

Apple made a major misstep with the way that it handled the delay of Apple Intelligence features for Siri, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said today. Announcing the delay through a press statement was a bad decision, and Apple should instead have gone through official channels.

Kuo referenced the well-known "Antennagate" PR crisis when the iPhone 4 launched in 2010, and the way that then Apple CEO Steve Jobs handled it. Jobs personally responded to multiple customer emails, and then Apple held a press conference to address concerns about the iPhone 4's cellular signal. Jobs ended up announcing that Apple would provide free bumpers for all iPhone 4 uses to mitigate the issue, and allow customers who were still unhappy to return their iPhones.

The implication in Kuo's statement is that Apple CEO Tim Cook and other executives should follow Jobs' example, giving customers more insight into what's going wrong with Siri development.

Kuo acknowledges that it takes time to develop artificial intelligence services, and that Apple's early announcement of Apple Intelligence Siri features at WWDC 2024 is understandable "given the pressure from the board and shareholders." With the company unable to deliver the feature set in the promised timeline, Apple needs to provide a more concrete response.

In the midst of Antennagate, Jobs was transparent about Apple's position and offered a concrete solution. Jobs said that Apple did not "fully understand if there were problems" when the iPhone 4 first came out, but that the company had a responsibility to educate as a "leader in the smartphone world." "We're not perfect, and we're working our asses off," Jobs said.

Back in 2012, Cook did personally address Apple Maps shortcomings in iOS 6, penning an apology letter to customers. He told customers that he was sorry, and he provided insight into Apple's work to make the Maps app better. Given the uproar over the delayed Siri overhaul, it could make sense for Cook to again speak to customers directly.

Article Link: Kuo: Cook Should Personally Address Siri Apple Intelligence Failure

Apple needs a leader like Steve Jobs, a person with dedication to design and complete software completion by the time the computers go into consumers’ hands, also with software stability in mind.

 

[Octavius8]

To give excuses?. Tim is expert on that.

 

[I7guy]

Of course YOU don’t think there is a problem

What is thst supposed to mean?

However they showed a concept video of something that hadn’t even been shown working & that’s the problem.
Why not mention it in the first place & then later when you have it working in some capacity then you mention it.

Stuff happens. Projects get delayed. Of course for online forum posters the reaction is the sky is falling to a nothing-burger.

 

[michaeljk]

Kuo is right, but also gets the whole thing wrong. This is not just a delay, or at least we all have reason to believe that it is not just a delay. Siri sucks, hard. Everyone knows this. So, when Apple touted a new version of Siri that actually worked, and was able to do all of the things Apple said it would be able to do, there was understandable skepticism, with some people (me included) hoping this meant Apple was scrapping the entire Siri codebase and starting something new behind the scenes. Now, none of this is clear, at all. Did Apple scrap Siri? Or was it trying yet another stupid failed attempt at kludging together an AI version of Siri on top of the mess that has always been Siri? This is my guess. And my guess is that (not at all surprisingly) it doesn't work, at all, so Apple is scrambling, or more likely just punting. What we will probably get is a very slimmed down version of what we saw last summer that still doesn't work most of the time, doesn't do most of what it should be able to do, and has very limited usefulness, and all the while Microsoft, Google, Meta, Amazon and others continue to sprint ahead of Apple in the AI assisted UX spaces.

 

[Ctrlos]

Just….I feel it’s been at the cost of the iPhones of the last 3 to perhaps 4 years. That’s all, not most more than that 😎

Indeed, Apple are the biggest company on the planet and this therefore paints a bigger target on their backs than any other.

 

[Mr_Ed]

Why? Because younger people don’t remember when people even pretended to have integrity?

Either that, or they may not have owned an Apple product when Apple still gave a **** about the details of day-to-day user experience.

 

[PaladinGuy]

never buy a device based on a promised software update.

Good advice, but it does not absolve corporations from false or misleading advertising.

 

[Stuwil]

never buy a device based on a promised software update.

Well don’t promise it in the first place before you buy it

 

[citysnaps]

Seems many here have never worked on very complex technical projects. Stuff happens, resulting in delays.

OTOH... in the past most people have claimed, very vociferously, they do not want AI on their phones and will immediately turn it off. Now, all of sudden, they do want it.

What's that about?

 

[Stuwil]

What is thst supposed to mean?

Stuff happens. Projects get delayed. Of course for online forum posters the reaction is the sky is falling to a nothing-burger.

No it’s about don’t promise things if it’s not actually been put into practice that it actually works.

 

[spazzcat]

If they come back this year or next and tell me my iPhone 16 Pro won’t work with the new Siri in any way, I would absolutely want compensation.

I am sure when iOS 19 with a complete redesign with AI at its core comes out, your phone will fully support it.

 

[spazzcat]

No it’s about don’t promise things if it’s not actually been put into practice that it actually works.

If people push Apple too hard, they will go back to not announcing anything until it is 100% done. We either get to preview the roadmap and live with delays when they happen, or we get to go back to being fully in the dark.

 

[spazzcat]

Good advice, but it does not absolve corporations from false or misleading advertising.

It is only false or misleading if it never gets released.

 

[I7guy]

No it’s about don’t promise things if it’s not actually been put into practice that it actually works.

Projects of all sorts get delayed. Put a stake in the ground, plan it out and go from there. If this is a showstopper for a person, there is competition that probably does it better and more correctly.

 

[I7guy]

It is only false or misleading if it never gets released.

It’s only false or misleading if it is. Delaying something is neither false nor misleading.

 

[Howard2k]

Seems many here have never worked on very complex technical projects. Stuff happens, resulting in delays.

OTOH... in the past most people have claimed, very vociferously, they do not want AI on their phones and will immediately turn it off. Now, all of sudden, they do want it.

What's that about?

It's about having something to complain about.

 

[Icehawk]

This is not the era of owning one's mistakes. It would have been nice to see them admit things weren't going great, but they were working their asses off to figure it out.